At the same time, all genuinely Christian Churches have Creeds, Confessions of Faith, Books of Liturgy and Canon Law in order to make the authority and content of the Holy Bible to be understood, received and used within the Church. Again the Anglican Way is no exception, and it has its Formularies, which are The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, The Book of Common Prayer (one book existing in various editions and languages) and The Form and Manner of Making Deacons, Ordaining Priests and Consecrating Bishops. These are known in North America through the official PECUSA Prayer Book edition of 1928 and the official Anglican Church of Canada Prayer Book edition of 1962 - and in England and most of Africa in the classic English 1662 edition.

"Formulary" is not a word in common usage, but is an important word, nevertheless, as it has been used in serious Anglican discourse consistently since the sixteenth century. The Latin, formularius (liber) [ =a book of formulae], on which it is based, pointed to a collection of set forms or instructions for the performance or direction of a ceremony or an official duty. Thus a "formulary' within a national Church is a book which contains the set forms and rules of what the Church believes, teaches and confesses, the liturgy it uses, and the way it creates the ordained Ministry.

In reforming itself in the sixteenth century, the Ecclesia Anglicana (the Church of England) reformed its Latin Formularies (those which had been in force in the medieval period) to create three new ones, along with a new edition of Canon Law. Under the final and supreme authority of Scripture, these summed up and presented the standards, norms and means by which the reformed Church of England sought to be the national jurisdiction of the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of God. These Formularies not only provided the way to worship and serve God daily, but they also distinguished the Church of England from other national and provincial jurisdictions. Wherever the Church of England went around the world, either with the British Empire or through missionary work, the Formularies went as well and were translated either in whole or part into over one hundred and fifty languages. The only exception to this rule were a few dioceses and provinces created by Anglo-Catholic missions. In these The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion as a Formulary was sometimes minimized or left out.

In the Canon Law of the Church of England, the mother Church of the Anglican family, the doctrinal foundation is stated with clarity in Canon A5:

The doctrine of the Church of England is grounded in the holy Scriptures, and in such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the said Scriptures. In particular such doctrine is to be found in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Ordinal.

So we see that there cannot be an Anglican Way that is biblically orthodox and Reformed Catholic without the Formularies! To pretend otherwise is to live in a world of unreality.

Today, when Anglicans are asking who and what they are, too few Episcopalians and Anglicans realize that the Anglican Way is based wholly on the Bible, as the Bible is received through the use and guidance of the Formularies. So Dr Peter Toon has carefully prepared for the Prayer Book Society a 64 page booklet entitled: The Anglican Formularies and Holy Scripture: Reformed Catholicism and Biblical Doctrine, in order to help us all recognize the identity and importance of these Formularies today, 2006. Each of the Formularies is given one chapter and then in a final chapter, the supreme authority of the Bible for Anglicans is explained in a compelling way.

Most regrettably in 1976/79 The Episcopal Church of the USA rejected the historic Formularies and made its new Prayer Book, Catechism and Ordination Services the official replacements. These have deeply aided the slide into error and apostasy of this same Church for they either contain or aid innovatory worship, doctrine, ministry and morality.

If there is to be a genuine renewal of the Anglican Way it will surely be based primarily on the dynamic authority of the sacred Scriptures and, secondly, on the mediated authority of the Formularies.

Please obtain and read The Anglican Formularies and Holy Scripture and also make it known to others. Think of using it as a study text for discussion groups in the Fall! And kindly visit www.anglicanmarketplace.com to order a single copy ($7.50 postage included) or call 1-800-727-1928 to obtain multiple copies at discount rates. You may also send a check to; The Prayer Book Society, P. O. Box 35220, Philadelphia, PA 19128 - 0220 to purchase one or more copies - but PA residents please add sales-tax.

--The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon MA., D.Phil (Oxford) is president of the Prayer Book Society. He can be reached at: petertoon@msn.com and www.pbsusa.org. Phone is: 1-800-PBS-1928